The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1887-07-02
BrOadbrim'S New York Letter.
Jpecial to the CARBON ADVOCATE.

wheat, the departure of Bernhardt, and the
monster procession to Doctor McGlynn,
have made the week seem exceedingly short
and when you cut half the day out of Sat
urday and devote the time formerly consid-
cred sacred to closing up accounts and Sat
urday marketing, to base ball, horserscing
and other moral amusemcnts, it leaves but
scant time even for a lively reporter to
make up summary of news Of the week
for the press.
The trial of poor old Jake Sharp has
fairly begun after a protracted effort to Sc
cure Jury, which has the enviable dis
tinction of containing at least one gentle
man. And this brings me to the point of
how juries are obtained in New York.
In this good city the Sheriff has nothing
to do with making up the jury list; that is
done by gentleman known as the Com
missioner of Jurors, and most excellent
billet he has. The financial possibilities
of this office have never yet been fathomed,
but it is worth twice as much as the Presi
dency OF the United States, and it is doubt
full If there is an Office in the country of
equal value Suppose in our million and
half of population there are two hundred
and fifty thousand men subject to jury
duty and among them are all the substsn-
tial business houses and capitalists in the
city. The Commissioner of Jurors makes
out the list of names from which all juries
are drawn; he can put on the name ef Jay
Gould or he can leave it off, he can do the
same with Washington Connor, or Russell
Sage, or E. S. Jaffray. or Judge Hilton, or
Mr.. Astor, or Cyrus Field, or any one of
the millionaires with which this city doth
abound. Now it is well known that most
of the class of men that have named de-
test jury duty and would pay almost any
price rather than 60 in jury box; by some
mysterious process they are never called
upon to do so, and the result is that our
jury box.s are too often filled by a set of
professional heelers who hang about the
Courts and who get their names put in the
wheel to the displacement Of better men,
But after exhausting tale of two thousand
|
men and true, topping off No. IL with a
gentleman. To show how carefully, how
ever, the worthy Commissioner of Jurors
had performed his duty: one juror was
called up and he gave his age as seventeen
years, he was bounced at once; two of the
summoned jurors were found to have been
dead for three years, so the Court excused
them from attending; three had never been
naturalzed, and one of them had only been
in the country little over year and could
not speak a word of English; four were
deaf as posts and could not distinguish the
difference between a Chinese fire cracker
and dynamite explosion. Any number
had read the newspapers and had formed q
fixed opinion which Gabriel himself could
not turn. The halt, the lame and the
blind were on the list, and it is said, though
l won't vouch for the truth OF it, that a
prominent drygoods man uptown wanted
the judge to excuse him because he wa.
lefthanded. But the bitter tussle for pool
old Jake came on Saturday The Sheriff
had been allowing Mr.. Sharp to remain Al
his home in the custody of three Deput,
Sheriffs, but he remembered how Harry
Genett got away and how old Bill Tweed
had skedaddled, and he told the Court tina
for two days he had not slept a wink so b,
was going to curtail Mr.. Sharp's privileges
and lock him up. 1t was in vain tha
: counsel fumed and begged and prayed ant
swore, the Sheriff was firm as rock, an,
on Saturday afternoon the first link in tn
chain was rivetted, and poor old Jake wa
landed behind the iron bars. The room
, provided for his accommodation was th
d same in which Bill Tweed died. As he la
down to sleep that night what visions ros
before him as the future with all its tire
. mendous possibilities startled his dreams
The crowd still surges down Broadway il
the elegant cars provided by the arch-bood
Ter, unmindful of whether he sinks o
:, swims. The evidence of his crime remain
" in one of the most profitable and desirabl
" conyenences that the city has ever known
What will be ia eob's fate. We shall soc
. The cyclone that swept over the Oh Gag
n wheat-pt struck us by lightning few me
q ments after the row began there, and for
Il few hours the messenger boys were busy q
% the - in a gale of wind. Before tn
~ general olarm got out, it was evident tia
q something was the matter; the telegrap
; offices were ehoked with messages from tll
,r west, and the answers were piled high i
% every office here. ''SaYe me, Cash us, or
,r sink" was the cry from Chicago, and Wa
IS street responded nobly. But all day lon
a we were tempest-tossed, and it require
n some nelYe and good deal of geldt I
70 keep our household in order To tell tn
q truth, the coffee market a few days befor
>, gave us a severe turn from which we ha
+ not quite recovered 1t is true that th
10 amount involved was mere trife; onl
"a eight or ten millions. 1t was not SO muc
a the money, but it unsettled the values
"A millions more; in short it riled our coffee
a and with 1t our tempers; and there wa
If much swearing and general bad languag
thereat,
n Ia regard to these wheat and coffee dea
70 no one feels sorry that the principals VIII
+. engineered this villainous business came /
NJ grief. In regard to wheat there is no eartl
,e ly reason why the price should be raised
a the present time. The markets Of Ii
p world are glutted with it. California ca
ried oyer millions of bushels of last year
crop, and has this year promise of equ
'Y abundance. The granaries of the west al
b. full TO sutfocation, and that the yillainol
s. plot has failed let us all rejoice.
TO Coffee, which brought millionaire Arnol
S. and dozens of others to grief, was held |
al abundance in Biazil, the West Indies, Jaw
sll Costa Rica and other places where eoff,
y. is raised; syndicate was formed whie
H. was TO enrich a few men at the cost of N